Sir, – Nadine Cosgrave (February 23rd) highlights the drug payment scheme limit of €144 per month per couple. What she may not know is that this figure includes a service fee of €5 or €7 per item each month charged by most chemists.That amounts to €49 each month in service fees for my wife and myself. The HSE should forbid this rip-off practice and permit prescriptions to be written and supplied for a six-month period (as in Northern Ireland) with the prescription fee of €5 or €7 applicable for this period. I find it ironic that a major chain of UK chemists permits a six-month supply in their Newry shop but refuses to do so in my local branch, citing "company regulations". – Yours, etc,
DAVID McCABE,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.